Accidental Tourist of Singapore - Singapore Heritage Festival 2016: Bidadari Walk

By the end of 2016, the calls of nature from Bidadari, an area of some 26 hectares will be replaced by the familiar construction sounds of swirling cranes and ground pounding machines. And with those sounds, 40% of Singapore’s bird species will disappear.

With my glassy eyed memories from yesteryears when I accompanied my late grandmother to visit my grandfather’s grave in that area, I am again faced with another loss of the natural environment after witnessing the loss of another green lung, Bukit Brown.

My earlier blog entries regarding the loss of Bukit Brown,

http://accidentalsingaporetourist.blogspot.sg/2013/06/accidental-tourist-tale-of-2-greens.html

http://accidentalsingaporetourist.blogspot.sg/2013/06/accidental-tourist-tale-of-2-greens.html

http://accidentalsingaporetourist.blogspot.sg/2013/08/accidental-tourist-singapore-bukit.html

For those who want to venture there, here’s a map of the trail, http://heritagefest.sg/events/bidadari-heritage-trail

I leave you with a video of David Attenborough’s famous video of the amazing Lyre Bird singing like a chainsaw…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSB71jNq-yQ as this was exactly what I heard when walking through the trail today. 

Here are some links for those who want to read more about this:

https://singaporebirdgroup.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/birding-hotspot-bidadari/  

http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/pub/naturewatch/text/a101a.htm

http://www.nss.org.sg/documents/Conservation%20Proposal%20for%20Biddadari%20as%20a%20Nature%20Park.%20Revised.%204%20Dec.%202012.pdf  

Till the next time, onto the world and beyond. 

Accidental Tourist in Singapore - Weekend Stay at Pod coupled with cupping (TCM) and catting sessions

We had a "radical" idea to spend a night at a pod hotel and basically prodding down the streets of Chinatown Singapore with a vague itinerary of hitting a cat café in the evening.

Why radical? Well, when you combine the ages of all 3 of us, you will realize it ;)

Here are my beginning thoughts before starting on my stay......"On my way to Pod stay at Matchbox Hostel with long time old friends F and L. Staycation with a difference because pod stay means solo cocoon- communal like living - something that 40 year olds like us stay away from.

What seemed like a good idea back when it was first conceived but now? A sense of anticipation of what to expect (or not expect) hahahaha"

We started our program for the day by taking a morning walk that coincided with the Heritage Fest 2015 Delicious Chinatown Walk(http://heritagefest.sg/events/delicious-chinatown). It was a nice walk to re-acquaint locals like us to what our little city can offer.  

Whilst walking amongst the stalls of the wet market, we were introduced to the history of our now famous 'Chili Crab' first introduced by Madam Cheah who started this culinary delight at her stall located in Changi Road which was the original location of the now famous Palm Beach and shown stalls that sell the spices and ingredients for Laksa (Chinese noodle soup with chili and coconut milk) and traditional herbs used to make soups that allow kids to grow big and tall (peanut soup) and Lemongrass (Malay origin) for its anti cancer and wind removal properties. 

We also went down to individual shops like those selling traditional biscuits like Lou Poh Pang (Old Wives biscuit). The biscuit has winter melon filing and the story of how it got its name is that in the olden days, a dutiful wife sold herself to get money for father-in-law's medical bills and her husband sold these biscuits to redeem his wife's freedom. 
We ended our little walk at a Chinatown dim sum eatery called Yum Cha (drink tea in Cantonese).

Our next leg was at a Traditional Chinese Medicinal (TCM) shop where we tried out cupping therapy (which according to http://www.tcmwiki.com/wiki/cupping is s a treatment in which a cup sucked to the skin to create local stimulation for disease treatment and prevention). We came out of the cupping session with slightly bruised skin in those areas where wind was removed and feeling rather sleepy so we headed back to our pod stay for an afternoon nap.

Our pod stay was at Matchbox Hostel located at the top of Ann Siang Hill. We opted for the lower bunks given our slightly creaky knees and less nimble bodies in a 'ladies only' room instead of the much bigger area for the mixed dorm.

Evening stop was at the Cat Café appropriately called 'The Company of Cats'. It was my 1st time at the cattery and frankly it can be quite therapeutic to be surrounded by the fluffies. I will leave it to the photos to showcase these fluffies.

We didn't realize it but our night was not yet over until we partake in the festivities near our pod stay that included a ‎Bhangra‬ performance.

All in all, a unique and unforgettable staycation involving long time friends.

Till the next time, onto the world and beyond!